50th WMC Sailing – Helsinki (FIN) – Final Day

Gold for the Brazilian sailors

HELSINKI (FIN) – The semi-finals and finals of the 50th WMC Sailing Championship took place yesterday, June 20, in Helsinki, Finland where 102 participants (90 male athletes and 12 female athletes) from 15 countries gathered for 109 racing matches on J80, duel, on circuits of 2 laps over 20 minutes.

In the first semi-final, as it was the case during the round-robin phase, Brazil managed to defeat Poland for the second time in a row. The Brazilian sailors easily won the 3 races allowing them to run for the gold medal.

Unfortunately for the local fans, the Finnish team couldn’t repeat its initial performance against Russia during the first phase. The Russians sailors were too strong for the Finnish as they won the three races in a row and thus qualified for the final!

Just before the big final, Poland and the Finnish host country were facing for the bronze medal. And once again, the spectators attended a big surprize as the Finnish sailors faced a huge disappointment. Unlike their first encounter, the Polish team managed to be faster than Finland and won two races in a row. An impressive victory for the Polish bronze medallists.

In the gold medal game, Brazil took its revenge on the Russian team. Russia was the sole country able to defeat Brazil during the round-robin phase and was thus the favourite for the world title. But the Brazilian team achieved a solid last race and managed to keep up a fast pace ensuring them the gold medal! With this victory, the Brazilian sailors became the new Sailing Military World Champion and even had the honour to be congratulated by the Ambassador of Brazil to Finland Antônio Francisco Da Costa e Silva Neto!

Final Ranking:

Brazil
Russia
Poland
Finland

The Awarding and Closing Ceremony of the event took place right after the competitions in presence of Colonel Leonardo Oliveira, CISM Board of Directors Member and Official CISM Representative for this event, Brigadier Hassan A. A. Awad, PCSC Sailing, Navy Captain Pekka Varjonen, Head of Personnel of the Finnish Navy, Navy Captain Tuomas Tiilikainen, Commander of the Finnish Naval Academy and Chairman of the OC, Vice-Admiral Veijo Taipalus, Patron of the Championship and Commander of the Finnish Navy, Lieutenant-Colonel Harri Koski, Chief of Physical Training & Sports and Chief of the Finnish Delegation to CISM, local and international high authorities and local fans.

During this Ceremony, Pakistan also received the Fair-Play award as they shown the most positive sportive sprit throughout the WMC.

In his speech, the CISM OCR Colonel Leonardo Oliveira highlighted the role of the Finnish Armed Forces and warmly congratulated them for the impressive organization of the event and made an appointment with all the participants for the next edition of the WMC Sailing that will take place next year in Wuhan in the framework of the 7th CISM World Summer Games.